02-13-2017, 02:05 PM
I think last year, the PAC-12 showed a few minutes of underwater, but you can understand why they don't show much. Water polo is so different than basketball. Officials don't call fouls because it looks like there's a foul. They pretty much have to see something, so contact above water gets called but not so much under. Of course grabbing the suit is one way to control your opponent, and it is illegal (major foul & 20-second ejection). You will see the players lifting out of the water to try to show that the opponent is grabbing the suit. (But, I've also seen players grabbing their own suit to make it look like it was the opponent.)
I haven't noticed that the women are wearing two suits in games. The suits are very tight on them to minimize the ability to grab and heavier than racing suits. I noticed that the Hawaii/Michigan teams's suits had a different shape than the Cal/Stanford suits. Nobody grabs the straps of course, but they do grab anywhere on the body, and the leg holes.
But it is a whole lot rougher than just grabbing suits. Water is a lot more viscous than air. The game is more wrestling than boxing. First, if you watch play in the hole (2-4m in front of the center of the goal), there is a lot of contact that is visible when the ball is not there. Like BB centers, there is a lot of maneuvering to get position, with the same goal as BB - prevent the player from getting the ball. Like BB, you're constantly trying to either (offense) move toward the goal or (defense) push your player away from the goal, or to flip around to the other side of your opponent. One player's head will be on the other's shoulder (and heavy). Either player will grab the wrist or elbow or suit of the opponent (underwater) and effectively do wrestling-style moves to try to use the other player's body as a fulcrum to get yourself around them. In water polo, in the field, you want your hips up as high as you can, so you can lift your body out, and also because your kick (to keep you up in the water) is more effective if your waist is bent. But your opponent is going to be pushing your hips down. The offensive player is often laid out on her back, so better to push and to have your arms away from the grabby hands of the defender.
In close quarters, you'll see a player grab one arm and then put a knee or an elbow into the body. Thanks to the grab, above water the player doesn't move much, but their body gets out of position under water.
As a spectator, the interesting calls are often in the hole when the defender will have both hands out of water (to show they aren't grabbing) and the official will still eject them. You do wrap you legs around the opponent's waist or legs.
One of the roughest times is on possession changes (or anytime a player makes a quick cut). Pushing off your opponent is a double-win, but it has to be fast & below water as it is illegal. That's usually done with feet and a sharp kick. And, of course, that is when you will try to hang onto your opponent and push their hips down. Grabbing the leg of a player trying to swim away is a quick way to earn an ejection.
You will often see whichever one is in front swim diagonally in front of their opponent just to make them struggle more. I know that when I did that, I was not just trying to drag my arms across their body, I was trying to use my elbows to push into their body (their faces are out of the water).
For guys, a rough beard is used as a rasp when playing in the hole. 50 years ago, when I played at a small school in SoCal (I'm male), I did wear two suits, each tied as tight as I could manage (but you do have hips so there are places to grab, and grab they did). I remember a freshman that had been All-American in high school was really good at putting his foot sideways on my stomach, rotating his toes down, then push me back, and then pull his foot up, all in a single motion. Pop goes the string -- I lost two strings in suits that day, as I watched him swim away.
I haven't seen it, but I presume the officials still inspect everyone's fingernails & toenails before the game, and upon request during the game. Scratching wasn't something you tried to do, but was a side effect.
Don't forget the goalie. While they almost never have physical contact with other players, the ball will come at them from 1-5m at 40+ mph. Backhand shots have to be the worst because there is almost no wind up, and there is little way to predict where it is going to go. The shooter only has a vague idea of where the goalie is. If the player in the hole does a backhand shot to the goalie's face, there is no way for her to get her hands in the way, or even turn. I'm surprised there aren't more concussions, broken noses, or eye injuries. (The water polo cap does a good job of protecting the ears from grabs and bites and burst eardrums due to a ball hitting there.)Â
I guess one of the frustrations I have in BB about players flopping by throwing their heads backward is that such fakes are common in water polo and you have to watch the movement of the head to know if the player is being kicked in the chest or just trying to fake that they are.
[From Wikipedia]
Ball weight is 400-450 grams (14-16 ounces) (same as soccer, vs 260-280g for VB) and inflated to 90-97 kPa (kilopascals) gauge pressure (13-14 psi) for men and 83-90 kPa (12-13 psi) for women (vs ~4.5psi for VB, 8.5-16psi for soccer). Water polo balls come in two main sizes: a size 5 (68-71 cm in circumference, same as soccer), intended for use by men, and a size 4 (65-67 cm in circumference, same as VB), intended for women. I don't know how the rules are stated, but the surface of a water polo ball is such that it isn't slick (do I recall a similar feel on new leather basketballs in the 50s?). So it is slightly rough like unfinished leather (but retains this feature when wet). Players want the ball fully inflated as that makes it easier to bounce shots off the water.
While water polo is not particularly popular in the US, it has professional leagues in Europe. Water polo has been in more Olympics than soccer.
I never played football or rugby or wrestled or boxed. But when I got into water polo, I experienced this kind of physical combat and felt the emotions of such a visceral sport. It was definitely an outlet for me.
Conditioning for water polo is a whole lot different than for swimming. Treading water doesn't drain you, but the constant wind sprints do, not just up & down the pool, but also when playing either offense or defense. The bigger you are, the more suited you are for the struggle for position, but the more you have to lug up & down the pool.
I haven't noticed that the women are wearing two suits in games. The suits are very tight on them to minimize the ability to grab and heavier than racing suits. I noticed that the Hawaii/Michigan teams's suits had a different shape than the Cal/Stanford suits. Nobody grabs the straps of course, but they do grab anywhere on the body, and the leg holes.
But it is a whole lot rougher than just grabbing suits. Water is a lot more viscous than air. The game is more wrestling than boxing. First, if you watch play in the hole (2-4m in front of the center of the goal), there is a lot of contact that is visible when the ball is not there. Like BB centers, there is a lot of maneuvering to get position, with the same goal as BB - prevent the player from getting the ball. Like BB, you're constantly trying to either (offense) move toward the goal or (defense) push your player away from the goal, or to flip around to the other side of your opponent. One player's head will be on the other's shoulder (and heavy). Either player will grab the wrist or elbow or suit of the opponent (underwater) and effectively do wrestling-style moves to try to use the other player's body as a fulcrum to get yourself around them. In water polo, in the field, you want your hips up as high as you can, so you can lift your body out, and also because your kick (to keep you up in the water) is more effective if your waist is bent. But your opponent is going to be pushing your hips down. The offensive player is often laid out on her back, so better to push and to have your arms away from the grabby hands of the defender.
In close quarters, you'll see a player grab one arm and then put a knee or an elbow into the body. Thanks to the grab, above water the player doesn't move much, but their body gets out of position under water.
As a spectator, the interesting calls are often in the hole when the defender will have both hands out of water (to show they aren't grabbing) and the official will still eject them. You do wrap you legs around the opponent's waist or legs.
One of the roughest times is on possession changes (or anytime a player makes a quick cut). Pushing off your opponent is a double-win, but it has to be fast & below water as it is illegal. That's usually done with feet and a sharp kick. And, of course, that is when you will try to hang onto your opponent and push their hips down. Grabbing the leg of a player trying to swim away is a quick way to earn an ejection.
You will often see whichever one is in front swim diagonally in front of their opponent just to make them struggle more. I know that when I did that, I was not just trying to drag my arms across their body, I was trying to use my elbows to push into their body (their faces are out of the water).
For guys, a rough beard is used as a rasp when playing in the hole. 50 years ago, when I played at a small school in SoCal (I'm male), I did wear two suits, each tied as tight as I could manage (but you do have hips so there are places to grab, and grab they did). I remember a freshman that had been All-American in high school was really good at putting his foot sideways on my stomach, rotating his toes down, then push me back, and then pull his foot up, all in a single motion. Pop goes the string -- I lost two strings in suits that day, as I watched him swim away.
I haven't seen it, but I presume the officials still inspect everyone's fingernails & toenails before the game, and upon request during the game. Scratching wasn't something you tried to do, but was a side effect.
Don't forget the goalie. While they almost never have physical contact with other players, the ball will come at them from 1-5m at 40+ mph. Backhand shots have to be the worst because there is almost no wind up, and there is little way to predict where it is going to go. The shooter only has a vague idea of where the goalie is. If the player in the hole does a backhand shot to the goalie's face, there is no way for her to get her hands in the way, or even turn. I'm surprised there aren't more concussions, broken noses, or eye injuries. (The water polo cap does a good job of protecting the ears from grabs and bites and burst eardrums due to a ball hitting there.)Â
I guess one of the frustrations I have in BB about players flopping by throwing their heads backward is that such fakes are common in water polo and you have to watch the movement of the head to know if the player is being kicked in the chest or just trying to fake that they are.
[From Wikipedia]
Ball weight is 400-450 grams (14-16 ounces) (same as soccer, vs 260-280g for VB) and inflated to 90-97 kPa (kilopascals) gauge pressure (13-14 psi) for men and 83-90 kPa (12-13 psi) for women (vs ~4.5psi for VB, 8.5-16psi for soccer). Water polo balls come in two main sizes: a size 5 (68-71 cm in circumference, same as soccer), intended for use by men, and a size 4 (65-67 cm in circumference, same as VB), intended for women. I don't know how the rules are stated, but the surface of a water polo ball is such that it isn't slick (do I recall a similar feel on new leather basketballs in the 50s?). So it is slightly rough like unfinished leather (but retains this feature when wet). Players want the ball fully inflated as that makes it easier to bounce shots off the water.
While water polo is not particularly popular in the US, it has professional leagues in Europe. Water polo has been in more Olympics than soccer.
I never played football or rugby or wrestled or boxed. But when I got into water polo, I experienced this kind of physical combat and felt the emotions of such a visceral sport. It was definitely an outlet for me.
Conditioning for water polo is a whole lot different than for swimming. Treading water doesn't drain you, but the constant wind sprints do, not just up & down the pool, but also when playing either offense or defense. The bigger you are, the more suited you are for the struggle for position, but the more you have to lug up & down the pool.